AVIATION: Strike Broken?

For more than a week National Airlines' planes were grounded; their 145 pilots and co-pilots were out on strike. Members of the A.F.L. Air Lines Pilots Association, they had walked out because of "concern over air safety" after A.F.L. mechanics and office workers had struck for more pay, and because of "notoriously poor pilot-management relations."

But hard-bitten George T. Baker, National's president, did not intend to keep his planes grounded, strike or not. He promptly fired his pilots for quitting, and filed notice that he would sue A.L.P.A. for $5,000,000 for "libel and slander." Last week he started replacing the strikers with non-union pilots. It was the first time an airline had tried to break a pilots' strike. By week's end, National claimed to have restored its service to 30% of normal.